PREOCCUPIED • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Preoccupied

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/priˈɑkjəpˌaɪd/ Listen

Preoccupied

adjective

1.

Deeply absorbed in thought. Synonyms: bemused, deep in thought, lost. "Lost in thought" , "A preoccupied frown"

2.

Having or showing excessive or compulsive concern with something. Synonyms: haunted, obsessed, taken up. "Was absolutely obsessed with the girl" , "Got no help from his wife who was preoccupied with the children" , "He was taken up in worry for the old woman"

Preoccupy

verb

(past & past part. preoccupied; pres. part. preoccupying)

1.

Engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively. "The matter preoccupies her completely--she cannot think of anything else"

2.

Occupy or take possession of beforehand or before another or appropriate for use in advance.

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Etymology of 'Preoccupied'

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Preoccupied" Quotes from Famous Books

... Jed Muggs that morning for the damage caused by Teddy. Jed had named an excessive price, but Mr. Rushton had been in no mood to haggle and had paid him what he asked. But it was not this that kept him silent and preoccupied. ...

— The Rushton Boys at Rally Hall - Or, Great Days in School and Out • Spencer Davenport

... the day, the four in the tonneau, were in that humor of subdued yet vibrant excitement which is apt to attend the conclusion of a long, hard drive over country roads. Maitland, on the other hand, (judging him by his preoccupied pose), was already weary of, if not bored by, the hare-brained enterprise which, initiated on the spur of an idle moment and directly due to a thoughtless remark of his own, had brought him a hundred miles ...

— The Brass Bowl • Louis Joseph Vance

... could have conceived either tale.... It would require a very peculiar genius to add another tale ejusdem generis to 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Peter Wilkins.' I once projected such a thing, but the difficulty of the preoccupied ground stopped me. Perhaps La Motte Fouque might effect something; but I should fear that neither he nor any other German could entirely understand what may be called the desert island feeling. I would ...

— Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) • Robert Paltock

... door, to accuse him as a perjured villain. Even the exquisite church tower, which has the semblance of holding aloft a carved goblet of old silver, did not appeal to him as it would if he had not been preoccupied. And instead of laughing at the crowds of children who clattered after us, waking the clean and quiet streets with the ring of sabots, he let them get upon his nerves. The girls were amused, however, and said that the little pestering voices babbling broken English without sense or sequence, ...

— The Chauffeur and the Chaperon • C. N. Williamson

... the town's greater banks; and the stairway was at the disposal not only of the bank's clientele, but at that of sixteen tiers of tenants. However, it represented some advanced architect's ideal of grandeur, and it served to make the bank's president seem haughty when in truth he was only preoccupied. ...

— On the Stairs • Henry B. Fuller

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